Thousands Rally in Iran To Mark 44th Anniversary of Islamic Revolution

Tens of thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran and throughout the country over the weekend to mark the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the Western-backed Shah of Iran. In honor of the anniversary, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi gave a major speech Saturday that was nationally televised in which he said that the months-long national anti-government protests – sparked by the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, while in the custody of the morality police for allegedly wearing her headscarf incorrectly and that he claims are being fueled by the West – has been defeated. Raisi called on the young protesters, who he referred to as “deceived youth,” to repent so they can be pardoned by Iran’s supreme leader. His speech was punctuated with calls for “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” The televised speech was interrupted on its internet broadcast by antigovernment hackers, who replaced the broadcast with the logo of the hacker group “Edalate Ali (Justice of Ali) while a voice shouted “Death to the Islamic Republic.” On Sunday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued an amnesty covering a large number of prisoners, including some arrested in recent antigovernment protests, as well as some political prisoners. As many as 19,763 protesters are believed to have been arrested since the start of the protests in September. Meanwhile, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday that Raisi would visit China on Monday in a bid to strengthen economic cooperation, The visit comes on the heels of a meeting between Raisi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in September; Raisi is expected to hold private talks with Xi this week and to sign a variety of documents about the cooperation.